The invention relates to a dispenser of hot and cold drinks prepared with a water-soluble extract consisting essentially of at least a storage receptacle for the water-soluble extract, of a water-supply through a possible main storage tank, of facilities for the production of hot and/or refrigerated water and of a cup supply magazine.
An automatic dispenser machine particularly for the preparation of drinks is already known. This dispenser comprises a storage magazine of pots containing the water-soluble extract. These pots, shaped like a truncated cone and with a flange at the base closed off by a lid, are taken from the magazine by a rotating movable plate then passed to a cutting device. The content of the pots is poured into a mixing chamber fitted with a mixer and fed with water supplied from one or other of the supply tanks, one containing cold and the other hot water. After mixing, the prepared drink is poured into a cup placed in a holder which is preferably located outside the dispenser cabinet or in a recess in the latter.
Also known is a dispenser of hot or cold drinks comprising a storage receptacle for the water-soluble extract having at the bottom an Archimedean screw passing through an aperture in the base of the receptacle and taking a certain quantity of such extract and pouring it into a chamber let into its base. The water arrives tangentially into this chamber and carries the water-soluble extract towards a mixer located under the chamber. In the final phase, the water rinses the said chamber. The mixer comprises a rotating fin homogenising the prepared drink. The latter is then poured into the cup. The various parts are of course interlinked by pipes.
Also known is a drinks dispenser machine by document GB-A-2 083 443. This machine includes a certain number of detachable tanks which are intended to be filled with coffee and opening on to a feed cone terminating in an electromagnetic valve which, when open, is intended to allow a certain quantity of ground coffee to fall into a cup. However, this drink dispenser has no automatic cup feed. Moreover, measuring the quantity of water-soluble extract to be poured into a cup is not done volumetrically but consists of allowing such water-soluble extract to flow for a certain time during which the valve is kept open. Consequently, even an extremely slight alteration in the water-soluble extract by water-vapour necessarily entails variations in the quantity of extract flowing during a given period of time and consequently variations in the quality of the drink.
Moreover, when being used, the drinks dispenser requires the successive manipulation of several controls. Finally, owing to the fact that the cup is placed directly under the different feed outlets, it is inevitable, when operating this machine, that a certain amount of water-vapour mixing with the water-soluble extract should partly clog up the valve seat, which necessarily results in variations in the quality and hygienic character of the drink.
However, such known dispensers are inconvenient in several ways. In the first place, they do not comply with the rules of hygiene. Indeed, both in the mixing chamber and in the mixer a deposit of water-soluble extracts is gradually formed because the final rinse has proved insufficiently effective and the inside rim of the mixing chamber and/or of the mixer retains a residue of water-soluble extract. This inconvenience is all the more noticeable when the dispenser has several types of water-soluble extract. Another inconvenience of the known dispensers relates to the arrangement of the chamber in relation to the aperture through which the Archimedean screw passes. Because, through this aperture, a certain amount of vapour released by the hot water pouring into the chamber enters the receptacle, such vapour influencing the water-soluble extract contained in the receptacle. There is thus a possibility of extracts gumming up the area of this aperture. This can result not only in a diminution of the quantity of extract supplied per cup but also in blocking the Archimedean screw.